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The Mutation by monitor101
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The Mutation (A sequel to the Virus) Prologue
Date: 13 October 2003, 11:20 PM
(After the events in the Virus, ONI shut down its biological weapons division and the virus was shut out of existence. But now a desperate company struggling to stay alive has signed for military contracts with ONI. Now the virus has been taken to a secret location and research is continued. ONI has targeted all military personnel who know about the virus but shouldn't, for death that includes Sergeant Kurt Holmes. At a secret military base, the virus has been mutated and becomes a more deadly killer than anyone would have thought. So begins the Mutation)
"Deep in the chaotic regime, slight changes in structure almost always cause vast changes in behavior. Complex controllable behavior seems precluded."
-Stuart Kaufman
(Uplink Biotechnologies Incorporated HQ, Reach city, Planet Reach, 01100 hours local, Monday, year 2551)
CEO John Trenton stood in front of the board of directors. He waited until the 15 men got settled then he began. "Now gentlemen shall we get started, as you all know Uplink is going no where but down, for the last three years we have had nothing but financial trouble. We have had to lay off over two thirds of workers and are stock shares have plummeted to 0.07 and it is still dropping. Our only way to survive is military contracts. With the contracts the military would fully fund Uplink for the next three years. Now I ask the board to vote on this. If you don't want to be out of a job and have your fortunes gone then I suggest you say yes," Trenton said hoping his words would make the board members say yes.
"Before we vote I must ask, the military contracts would be with the Office of Naval Intelligence and won't the contracts be illegal?" a director asked.
"Good question yes the contracts will be with ONI and the contracts that ONI entrusts us with will be entirely legal and the projects will have a spokesman who briefs the Congressional Committee and the Joint Chief's of staff and the UNSC security council about what is going on so it will be legal," Trenton lied. "Now shall we vote, all in favor of signing this company onto military contracts to keep it alive, raise your hand?" Trenton said. Every hand in the room went up.
(Uncharted region of space outside of UNSC controlled space, UNSC medical Frigate Constellation, 01200 hours)
Dr. Jake Wilson stood leaning against a rail waiting for a new recruit. Finally after waiting for thirty minutes a Dr. Ben Mills walked up a set of stairs to Wilson.
"Dr. Wilson hi I'm Ben Mills," the young doctor offered his hand.
"Glad to meet you, did you find your quarters okay?" Wilson asked.
"Yes now I'm fairly new here and pretty fresh on how to make my way around these ships so would it be possible if you could give me a grand tour of the medical labs?" Mills asked.
"Certainly right this way," Wilson motioned for Mills to follow.
"Oh yes I would like to welcome you to operation Cipher, but do remember you are sworn to secrecy from here on in and your security clearance is a level red so you have access to just about anything," Wilson said.
For the next half hour Wilson led Mills through a vast connecting network of hallways and corridors. He showed Mills every medical bay and laboratory in the ship when he finally came to a doorway with a sign that said: SECURITY LEVEL RED NO UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ALLOWED BEYOND THIS POINT, LEVEL RED SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED, and WARNING UNDER PENALTY OF UNSC LAW DO NOT GO BEYOND THIS POINT WITHOUT PROPER CLEARANCE.
"You guys are pretty strict about your security," Mills said staring up at a security camera.
"Yes well the operations and experiments that we are conducting here are of the up most secrecy. The brass is very nervous about the experiments that we do here," Wilson said.
"Now to get through this door you simply insert your ID card through that slot and type in your ID number," Wilson did the process quickly and a female voice said "Welcome Dr. Wilson."
Mills looked inside to see a long plain hallway with another door at the end. He followed Wilson to the door. Wilson explained how Mills had to do a voice and retina scan to get through the door. Then they went to a set of steel reinforced titanium doors that required a hand print scan and an ID scan. After that they entered another hallway that had halls going to the right and left and straight.
"Now to the left are the biosafety level 1 and 2 labs, to the right are the biosafety level 3 labs and straight ahead is where we work, the biosafety level 4 labs," Wilson said as he walked forward.
Mills followed him through a set of steel double doors on the left and into a control room. In the room two rows of control panels ran across the 40 foot room. Each control station was manned by a technician. Mills looked at the back wall which was jammed with electronic equipment and computer monitors. He looked at the forward wall where all the controls panels were facing. Through a thick glass window a group of techs were working in a biosafety level 4 lab.
"Shit, you got enough equipment in here to run the whole fleet," Mills said.
"Yah well it takes quit a bit to run a 4 lab, you have to constantly monitor air pressure, make sure you don't have a leak, the list goes on and on," Wilson said.
"Question since you're operating out of UNSC controlled space in an uncharted region, is this operation...whatever it is legal?" Mills asked.
"To tell you the truth no its not. Since the biological weapons division has been dropped of all funding and all of its projects scrapped, ONI turned to a struggling company as you know Uptech (Uplink Technologies). Now ONI offered Uptech military contracts that would set Uptech on a straight course and it's stock shares would no longer be dropping and its stock would sky rocket. ONI's special operations director Gen. Paul Hood has Uptech's CEO practically in his pocket. The CEO bribed the board of director's to approve the military contracts. With the money that ONI supplied (approximately twenty billion dollars, stolen in small amounts over the course of thirty years from the UNSC Congress) they gave it to Uptech who bought this Frigate and ONI secretly put members onto this ship and brought it out here to evade UNSC patrols. This op does not have the approval from Congress nor the UNSC Security Council or the General's staff. So no this project is entirely illegal that's why Uptech is carrying out this mission so that those damn spy's congress put into ONI don't find out," Wilson said.
"That explains a lot," Mills said shocked.
"Now the reason this project is so secure is because of this follow me," Wilson led Mills out of the control room and through a corridor until they passed through five steel double doors and came to a set that had a sign that read: WARNING NO UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL BEYOND THIS POINT LEVEL RED SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED and UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH NO UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ALLOWED.
Wilson scanned his ID card then did a retina scan and a voice identification scan, a fingerprint scan, and an ID number scan. Then the doors finally opened to reveal another control room much like the one that was at the level 4 lab. But this one was dimly lit by the computer screens and had minimal staff of ten people manning control stations that all faced a blank wall. Wilson led Mills over to a man sitting at the head of the room.
"Dr. Webber this is Dr. Mills the new pathologist who will be working in the 4 lab," Wilson introduced.
"Hi" Webber said as he swirled around in his swivel chair.
"Dr. Webber a pleasure to meet you I'm a long time admirer," Mills said as he shook Webber's hand.
"Nice now let me show you why we need all this security," Webber said almost reading Mills mind as he pushed a series of buttons.
Suddenly the blank wall that everyone was facing began to roll up to reveal a sight that made Mills gasp.
Across from them were ten grotesque looking things that stood around a room parallel to the control room. The things skin was like a brownish liquid that ran down what were their faces. Vapor floated up out of their mouths. One of them opened their mouth to reveal two inch long fangs on either side. The thing walked closer to the bullet proof window blocking the control room. With every step it took the metal deck beneath its feet would begin to melt. The creatures looked like liquid that had formed human shape.
"What...the...hell are those things?" Mills stuttered.
"Those things are humans or used to be, infected with the Deforma virus. We call them body snatchers. Now you're probably wondering why or how so I'll tell you. We genetically altered the virus and the Deforma bacteria so it would attack the brain and begin to take control of its host. The viruses particles in the host would attack all of the host six trillion cells and convert the cell's software to make a virus block that explodes and creates millions more of virus particles. The virus particles keep on replicating and replicating, attacking every organ and muscle in your body. It converts your internal biomass into some sort of liquid that we call body liquid. All your organs are still functioning but their liquid. We haven't even begun to understand these things. They can create rivers of this liquid. Their highly infectious to, skin to skin contact chemical exchange, molecular exchange, airborne whatever way of passing on a virus particle from one life form to the next you can think of they can do it. Their sight is infrared so their attracted to anything hot. The chamber their in is surrounded by a network of liquid nitrogen pipes that we use to super cool the walls and floor so they can't escape," Webber said.
Suddenly an alarm sounded as glass sprayed onto them and some one yelled "BREACH!"
(ONI HQ, Reach city, planet Reach, 0945 hours)
General Paul Hood director of ONI special operations, sat behind his massive mahogany desk. He studied that dark figure in front of him. "Mr. Kovacs I'm sure your wondering why you're here," Hood said.
"The reasons are quit obvious," Kovacs said. He looked around the massive office of ONI's spec ops director, from the office's features Kovacs guessed that Hood was right under ONI's director. The office was a good sized 20X15 foot room. Near the entrance was a large circular mahogany table that had ten seats around it. The office sported a bar on the left; the bar had a wide variety of Brandi, Whiskey, Vodka, Wine, and rare beer. Overhead a giant chandelier hung down from the ceiling. The walls were decorated with dozens of pictures of young soldiers and Hood winning metals, proof of Hood's long service. A fireplace dominated the right wall and ten TV screens were built into the left wall. Hood's desk was rich mahogany with a computer on the left and a cordless phone along with a holo tank. Behind Hood was a giant window overlooking the great vista of Reach city's North Block.
"Yes the reasons are quit obvious and we are sorry for any inconvenience that we may have caused you," Hood said.
"Yes only interrupting my vacation now why couldn't you contact someone else?" Kovacs demanded.
"Mr. Kovacs you have assassinated thirteen of the UNSC's most powerful figures. You have killed over three hundred people in your life time. You're the most feared assassin in any of the colonies. Your record is superb we had to have you for this," Hood said. He wanted to be careful with the assassin/hitman. Even a high ranking man like Hood was shaken at the site of the Asian man sitting across from him. "And besides Mr. Kovacs you come from a long blood line of warriors and samurai."
"Yes now tell me the mission and I will name the price," Kovacs said.
"We are carrying out a highly secret operation that doesn't have approval from Congress or the Security Council or the General staff. Only a select few know about this op but a few people outside the intelligence community know about it after an accident we had last year. We will give you a data disk with all information about the targets now what's the price?" Hood asked.
"Two hundred million," Kovacs said flatly.
"Done now its been a pleasure doing business Mr. Kovacs," Hood said as he stood up out of his rich leather chair and handed Kovacs a black disk.
"Likewise and consider this mission done," Kovacs said as he took the disk and left. Akira Kovacs walked outside the massive ONI HQ building and took a taxi to his house. Kovacs put the disk into a compact computer palm pad and read over the mission instructions. The instructions stated that he had to take out a few Marines who knew too much and how ONI didn't care how he killed the targets as long as it was carried out. He read over the hit list which consisted of a few PFC and Corporal Marines who were labeled as least priority. But what really caught his eye was the part that read:
Priority Alpha targets:
PhD. Dr. Decker C. Tom
Sergeant (first class) Holmes A. Kurt
To Be Continued...
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